Chancellor Scholz on saturday inaugurated Germany’s first liquefied natural gas terminal, declaring that the speed with which it was put into service is a signal that Europe’s biggest economy will remain strong.
The top three officials in the government — Scholz, Economy Minister Robert Habeck, and Finance Minister Christian Lindner — attended the inauguration in the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven in a sign of the importance that Germany attaches to several new LNG terminals that it is scrambling to build following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The terminals are part of a drive to prevent an energy crunch that also includes temporarily reactivating old oil- and coal-fired power stations and extending the life of Germany’s last three nuclear power plants, which were supposed to be switched off at the end of this year, until mid-April.
Scholz announced days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February that the government had decided to build the first two LNG terminals quickly.
“When we said that, for example, such a terminal should be built here in Wilhelmshaven this year already, many said that’s never possible, that would never succeed,” the chancellor said at Saturday’s ceremony.